Three  Thousand  y      3  Ago 


GOODWIN 


vA 


* 


K 


LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND 
YEARS  AGO 


LOVERS 


THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO 


AS  INDICATED  BY 


THE  SONG  OF  SOLOMON 


REV.  T    A.  GOODWIN,  D.  D. 


CHICAGO 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
1895 


copyright  by 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 

chicago,  ill.,  1895. 


PREFACE. 


THE  author  of  this  little  book  does  not  claim  to  have  just  dis- 
covered that  the  Song  of  Solomon  is  a  love-story  in  verse. 
That  was  suggested  by  Bible-scholars  many  years  ago,  and  it  has 
been  very  generally  accepted  by  the  scholarship  of  to-day.  But  in 
all  the  literature  upon  the  subject,  whether  in  the  form  of  mono- 
graphs, or  of  articles  in  magazines,  or  reviews,  or  encyclopaedias, 
there  is  not  found  a  single  presentation  of  it  in  a  form  which  would 
allow  it  to  be  read  in  its  real  character.  These  discussions  are  all 
in  the  form  of  critical  expositions  of  the  text,  so  that  in  most  of 
them  the  text  appears  only  in  fragments.  The  plan  of  this  book  is 
to  eliminate  all  textual  criticism  and  to  restore  the  text  to  the  form 
which  made  the  poem  a  treasure  with  the  ancient  Hebrews,  and 
which,  when  thus  read,  will  make  it  as  dear  to  every  true  lover  to- 
day as  it  was  when  first  read  and  recited  three  thousand  years  ago. 


£ 
* 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

The  Historical  Import  of  the  Poem i 

The  Character  of  the  Poem n 

The  Song  of  Songs 21 


THE  HISTORICAL  IMPORT  OF  THE 
POEM. 


r  I  aO  THE  common  reader  of  the  Bible,  and  little  less 
■*■  to  the  careful  Bible  student,  the  book  known  as 
the  Song  of  Solomon  is  a  perpetual  enigma.  Not  seem- 
ing to  meet  any  of  the  supposed  purposes  for  which 
the  Bible  was  written,  many  good  men,  including 
many  whose  business  it  is  to  teach  Bible  truth,  seldom 
if  ever  read  it  as  they  read  other  Scriptures,  and  not  a 
few  hold  that  its  incorporation  into  the  sacred  canon 
is  somebody's  blunder.  It  is  not  difficult  to  account 
for  this,  when  we  call  to  mind  the  once  prevailing 
opinion  of  what  the  Bible  is  and  what  it  is  for.  Being 
found  in  that  collection  of  histories  and  prophecies 
and  songs,  which  by  the  way  of  pre-eminence  we  call 
the  Bible,  and  which  is  held  sacred  by  devout  and 
learned  Christians  and  Hebrews  as  the  repository  of 
correct  doctrine  and  of  safe  rules  of  conduct  ;  and 
seeming  to  contain  nothing  that  may  be  regarded  as 
either  doctrinal  or  didactic,  Bible  students  as  well  as 
the  common  Bible  reader  have  been  put  to  their  wits' 
end  to  find  a  place  for  it. 


2  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  the  dogma  of  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  was  promulgated  with 
such  pertinacity,  that  long  after  the  Bible  became  the 
property  of  the  common  people  this  figment  held  a 
place  in  their  thoughts.  Even  as  late  as  the  days  of 
King  James  this  was  the  case  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
translators  whom  he  had  chosen  to  prepare  an  author- 
ised version  so  rendered  Paul's  language  to  Timothy 
as  to  read,  "All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of 
God."  This  practically  settled  the  question  with  the 
common  reader,  so  that  the  Song  of  Solomon  and  the 
Book  of  Ruth  were  placed  on  a  level  with  the  proph- 
ecies of  Isaiah  and  Daniel  and  the  writings  of  Moses 
and  of  David,  as  being  designed  to  teach  doctrine  or  to 
administer  reproof,  or  to  instruct  in  right  living. 

All  down  the  ages  following,  individual  scholars 
protested  against  this  rendering,  but  their  protests 
went  unheeded,  as  unworthy  of  acceptance  in  the  face 
of  the  opinion  of  the  learned  commission  of  the  king, 
who,  in  the  popular  thought,  were  little  if  any  less  in- 
spired than  the  sacred  writers  themselves.  This  com- 
pelled Bible  scholars  to  adapt  the  "Song"  to  the 
general  purpose  of  inspired  Scripture,  so  that  it  might 
be  profitable  in  some  way  "for  doctrine,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  and  for  instruction  in  righteousness." 

One  can  hardly  review  with  complacency  the  many 
schemes  of  Bible  teachers  to  bring  this  book  into  line 
with  Isaiah  and  Daniel  and  the  Psalms,  so  that  with 
them  and  other  inspired  books  it  may  refer  to  the  Mes- 


THE  HISTORICAL  IMPORT  OF  THE  POEM.  3 

siah,  and  may  instruct  the  Church  in  things  spiritual. 
By  some  it  has  been  regarded  as  an  allegory,  by  oth- 
ers a  parable,  whose  hidden  meaning  might  be  guessed 
at,  if  not  comprehended.  In  keeping  with  this  thought 
almost  from  the  first  edition  of  the  authorised  version, 
the  editors  of  the  several  editions  have  seemed  to  vie 
with  each  other  in  ingenious  suggestions  as  to  the  sig- 
nification of  this  or  that  sentence  or  paragraph  ;  and 
preachers,  from  the  unlearned  rustic,  in  ministering  to 
his  uneducated  and  emotional  flock,  to  the  profound 
doctor  of  divinity  in  his  city  pulpit,  preaching  to  men 
of  culture,  have  found  spiritual  "instruction"  in  such 
passages  as  "  I  have  put  off  my  coat,  how  can  I  put  it 
on?"  "Thy  teeth  are  like  a  flock  of  sheep."  "The 
head  upon  thee  is  like  Carmel."  "We  have  a  little 
sister  and  she  hath  no  breasts." 

The  sermons  may  all  have  been  good  enough  and 
may  have  conveyed  important  lessons  to  the  hearers, 
but  they  might  have  been  "  founded "  as  well  upon 
some  passage  in  Milton  or  Shakespeare  or  Dante  as 
upon  these.  Not  the  least  objectionable  use  of  this 
Song,  or  parts  of  it,  is  that  made  by  hymn-writers. 
Who  can  enumerate  the  hymns  that  find  their  chief 
attraction  in  poetic  changes  upon  the  Rose  of  Sharon, 
the  Lily  of  the  Valley,  the  Turtle  Dove,  the  One  Alto- 
gether Lovely,  or  some  other  similar  phrase  in  this 
book?  If  all  the  hymns  which  are  inspired  by  some 
passage  from  the  Song  of  Solomon  were  expurgated 
from  some  collections  of  hymns  there  would  be  little 


4  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

left  worth  singing.  Many  of  them  are  beautiful,  but 
their  beauty  does  not  consist  in  the  thought  of  the  text 
as  it  stands  in  its  proper  meaning. 

It  is  positively  ludicrous,  if  the  following  exposi- 
tion of  the  Song  be  the  correct  one,  to  read  the  head- 
ings of  the  chapters  and  the  running  titles  in  our  com- 
mon family  Bibles,  which  are  intended  to  give  a  clue 
to  the  meaning  of  the  text.  They  run  thus:  "The 
Church's  love  for  Christ,"  "She  confesseth  her  de- 
formity," "Christ  directs  her  to  the  Shepherd's  tent, 
and  showeth  His  love  to  her,"  "Having  a  taste  of 
Christ's  love,  is  sick  of  love,"  and  so  on,  calling  the 
lover's  passionate  description  of  his  affianced,  "Christ 
showing  the  graces  of  the  Church,  and  His  love  towards 
her,"  though  elsewhere  they  have  the  Church  confess- 
ing her  deformity. 

It  is  plain  that  any  intelligent  exposition  of  this 
book,  or,  for  that  matter,  of  any  part  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  must  be  along  the  line  which  repudiates 
the  figment  of  Plenary  Inspiration,  at  whose  doors 
most,  if  not  all,  the  obscurity  which  envelops  this 
Song  of  Solomon  lies,  as  well  as  do  many  indefensi- 
ble dogmas,  which  have  the  same  paternity.  Not  only 
does  the  Bible  nowhere  make  such  a  claim  for  itself, 
but  the  structure  of  the  book  as  a  whole,  and  of  its 
contents  taken  separately,  are  evidences  against  the 
assumption. 

The  advent  of  the  revised  version,  the  product  of 
a  ripe  scholarship  that  cannot  be  gainsaid,  has  greatly 


THE  HISTORICAL  IMPORT  OF  THE  POEM.  5 

aided  in  the  proper  understanding  of  this  Song,  as  well 
as  of  many  other  parts  of  our  sacred  Scriptures.  There 
is  a  far-reaching  difference  between  "All  Scripture  is 
given  by  inspiration  of  God,"  as  the  authorised  ver- 
sion has  it,  and  "Every  Scripture,  inspired  of  God," 
as  it  appears  in  the  revised  version.  The  scope  of 
this  treatise  does  not  require  the  elaboration  of  this 
difference.  It  is  sufficient  for  its  purpose  to  state  that 
the  plain  inference  is  that  Paul  and  the  Jews  of  his 
period,  and  of  course  the  Christians  also,  held  that 
some  portions  of  the  sacred  writings,  as  they  then  pos- 
sessed them,  were  not  so  inspired  as  to  be  specially 
printable  for  doctrine  or  for  reproof,  or  for  instruction 
in  righteousness. 

The  assumption  that  Solomon  was  himself  the 
author  of  the  Song  has  very  little  to  sustain  it.  That 
it  is  called  the  Song  of  Solomon,  or  the  Song  of  Songs, 
which  is  Solomon's,  proves  nothing.  He  could  not 
have  written  it,  unless  the  remorse  which  possessed 
him  towards  the  close  of  his  misspent  life,  and  which 
led  him  to  pronounce  that  life  a  failure,  implied  more 
than  remorse  usually  does.  The  author  was  not  even 
a  friend  of  Solomon's.  The  whole  poem  is  a  scathing 
rebuke  to  all  his  social  and  domestic  methods.  It  is 
quite  as  likely  to  be  the  product  of  some  man  or  wo- 
man a  hundred  years  or  more  later  than  Solomon's 
time,  and  more  likely  to  be  that  of  a  woman  than  of  a 
man,  judging  from  the  tender  pathos  of  many  portions 
of  the  poem  which  very  few  men  could  exhibit.     The 


6  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

author,  whether  male  or  female,  whether  living  near 
Solomon's  time  or  much  later,  gave  birth  to  this  un- 
dying poem  and  then  died  leaving  nothing  else  worth 
preserving,  not  even  a  name. 

It  was  probably  founded  upon  some  fact  in  the  life 
of  that  lecherous  king,  which  had  been  transmitted 
through  generations  by  authentic  history  or  by  tradi- 
tion or  both,  out  of  which  the  gifted  poet  built  this 
most  admirable  production  as  Longfellow  built  his 
Miles  Standish  out  of  the  traditions  and  history  of  the 
early  pilgrim  fathers.  Its  being  called  the  Song  of 
Solomon  no  more  proves  or  even  suggests  that  Solo- 
mon was  its  author  than  will  the  Song  of  Hiawatha 
prove  or  suggest  three  thousand  years  hence  that  Hia- 
watha was  the  author  of  the  poem  which  this  genera- 
tion knows  was  written  by  another. 

Neither  is  it  difficult  to  account  for  its  place  in  the 
sacred  canon.  Books  in  those  days  were  few  and  only 
those  that  struck  the  popular  heart  had  the  distinc- 
tion of  a  reproduction  through  the  expensive  process 
of  being  copied  by  hand ;  hence  few  ever  reached  the 
second  edition,  much  less  a  general  circulation  through 
multiplied  copies,  so  as  to  be  preserved  through  suc- 
ceeding ages. 

When  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  returned  to  Jerusalem 
after  the  long  captivity  in  Babylon  their  first  duty  was 
of  course  to  provide  for  immediate  physical  wants ; 
hence  they  addressed  themselves  heroically  to  the  re- 
building of  the  temple  and  the  reconstruction  of  the 


THE  HISTORICAL  IMPORT  OF  THE  POEM.  J 

walls  of  Jerusalem.  When  this  had  been  done  they 
found  another  work  of  not  less  piety  and  patriotism, 
though  so  much  less  ostentatious  as  hardly  to  find 
mention  in  the  annals  of  the  Hebrew  people.  When 
they  and  those  who  followed  them  looked  around  they 
found  that  most  of  the  literature  of  their  nation  had 
been  "lost  by  reason  of  the  war."  To  recover  this  as 
much  as  possible  seems  to  have  been  a  chief  aim  of 
Nehemiah,  hence  he  set  about  "founding  a  library, 
gathering  together  the  acts  of  the  kings  and  the  writ- 
ings of  the  prophets,  and  of  David  and  the  epistles  of 
the  kings"  (2  Mace,  2,  13). 

It  needed  not  to  be  specifically  mentioned  by  the 
historian  of  that  period  that  this  lover  of  the  litera- 
ture of  the  fathers  included  other  songs  than  the  songs 
of  David,  for  others  are  included  in  the  collection  of 
pious  songs  called  the  Psalms.  In  their  quest  they 
fouad  among  other  books  this  poem,  and  it,  too,  was 
incorporated  into  the  national  library,  and  thus  it  was 
preserved  through  the  succeeding  ages,  and  thus  it 
has  come  down  to  us. 

It  had  then  been  preserved  through  probably  not 
less  than  four  hundred  years  in  manuscript  alone,  and 
had  probably  been  recited  during  all  those  years  of 
tribulation,  in  which,  according  to  the  prophet,  the 
nation  had  been  "scattered  and  peeled  and  meeted 
out  and  trodden  down."  From  the  Assyrian  captivity 
ten  of  the  tribes  never  returned  sufficiently  organised 
to  retain  their  tribeship.     Finding  this  book  thus  pre- 


v 


8  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

served  they  gave  it  a  place  in  their  collection  and  thus 
it  became  a  part  of  the  Sacred  Writings.  And  no  won- 
der. It  had  vindicated  its  right  to  immortality.  When 
read  or  recited  as  the  Hebrew  people  read  and  recited 
it,  before  it  had  been  allegorised  out  of  all  significance, 
it  could  not  fail  to  interest  every  true  heart.  It  de- 
lineates the  triumph  of  true  love  over  all  the  allure- 
ments of  wealth  and  lust  in  such  a  manner  as  to  strike 
all  pure  men  and  women  as  above  praise. 

It  was  never  claimed  by  those  compilers  or  for 
them  by  others  until  long  after  the  coming  of  Christ 
that  all  these  books  were  inspired  in  the  sense  inspira- 
tion is  used  in  modern  theological  discourse.  It  was 
only  a  collection  of  history  and  prophecy  and  song.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  a  public  library  which  was  by  no 
means  completed  during  the  lives  of  its  founders,  but 
was  continued  through  succeeding  generations  by  the 
Great  Synagogue.  At  no  time  was  it  claimed  for  this 
collection  as  a  whole  that  it  had  such  divine  sanction 
that  whatever  it  contained  should  have  the  authority 
of  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord." 

In  the  time  of  the  Maccabees  this  library  was  to  be 
"read  with  favor  and  attention  "  (Prologue  to  Eccle- 
siasticus),  and  we  have  no  record  that  as  a  whole  at 
any  time  down  to  and  including  the  times  of  Christ  it 
had  any  other  sacredness  than  that  veneration  which 
is  due  to  any  collection  of  ancient  writings.  Hence 
the  significance  of  Paul's  distinction  in  his  letter  to 
Timothy,  between  the  Scriptures  which  were  given  by 


THE  HISTORICAL  IMPORT  OF  THE  POEM.  g 

inspiration  and  those  that  make  no  claim  to  that  origin, 
when  speaking  of  what  is  profitable  for  doctrines  and 
reproof  and  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness. 

It  matters  nothing  one  way  or  the  other  that  neither 
Christ  nor  any  of  his  disciples  ever  quoted  from  this 
book,  so  far  as  the  meagre  records  of  their  sayings 
show;  for  many  other  books  of  Ezra's  canon  are  in  the 
same  category  and  some  of  these  books  are  of  much 
historic  importance.  It  is  much  more  significant  as 
relating  to  the  question  cf  inspiration  that  they  quoted 
from  books  then  in  common  use,  no  copy  of  which  has 
come  down  to  us,  among  our  Sacred  Writings.  No  book 
is  extant  which  details  the  contention  between  Moses 
and  Jannes  and  Jambres,  nor  have  we  any  part  of  the 
Prophecy  of  Enoch  from  which  Jude  quoted  as  some- 
thing with  which  the  people  of  his  time  were  familiar. 
It  is  even  more  significant  in  relation  to  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  the  sacred  writings  of  apostolic  times 
that  when  Christ  opened  the  understanding  of  his  two 
disciples  who  met  him  on  their  way  to  Emmaus,  that 
they  might  understand  the  Scriptures  that  he  quoted 
only  from  "the  law  of  Moses  and  the  Prophets  and 
the  Psalms." 

That  such  a  book  should  be  placed  in  the  "Library" 
of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  and  be  preserved  in  it  through 
succeeding  centuries  is  no  wonder.  Neither  is  it  any 
wonder  that  centuries  later,  when  the  Christian  fathers 
were  compiling  their  collection  "to  set  forth  in  order 
the  things  which  we  believe,"  this  thrilling  book  should 


IO  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

be  retained,  though  not  conspicuously  adapted  to  doc- 
trine, or  reproof,  or  instruction.  The  Bible  as  a  light 
to  human  feet  along  every  pathway  of  life  would  be 
incomplete  without  it.  We  have  the  personification 
of  faith  in  the  story  of  Abraham  ;  of  patience,  in  the 
story  of  Job ;  of  filial  love,  in  the  story  of  Ruth  ;  of  en- 
durance, in  the  story  of  Moses  ;  and  here  we  have  a 
photograph  of  ardent  conjugal  love,  the  most  holy 
sentiment  of  humanity,  in  the  story  of  a  humble  shep- 
herdess and  her  equally  humble  and  faithful  lover  ;  a 
constant  rebuke  to  that  pietism  which  teaches  that 
ardent  conjugal  love  is  only  a  sensual  passion  which 
must  be  foresworn  or  tethered  if  one  would  attain  the 
highest  type  of  moral  character — a  most  detestable 
heresy. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  POEM. 


r  I  AHE  true  place  in  literature  for  this  Song  of  Songs 
■*"  is  that  of  a  Love  Story  in  verse.  To  call  it  a  drama 
is  hardly  to  classify  it  intelligibly  to  popular  thought, 
yet  it  partakes  of  most  of  the  elements  of  a  drama,  and 
is  more  of  a  drama  than  anything  else.  It  certainly 
belongs  to  the  drama  family.  If  it  were  allowable  to 
build  a  word  out  of  recognised  material  at  hand,  I 
would  call  it  a  drama-et.  While  it  lacks  the  scenic 
touches  which  are  necessary  to  adapt  it  to  the  stage, 
yet  when  read  or  rendered  even  in  the  less  pretentious 
form  of  a  dialogue  it  is  necessary  to  change  time  and 
place  and  the  dramatis  persona,  in  order  to  catch  its 
significance. 

In  the  following  rendering  I  have  followed  in  the 
main  the  text  of  the  revised  version  as  bringing  out 
more  nearly  the  meaning  of  the  original,  and  because 
the  metrical  arrangement  is  more  suggestive  of  poetry. 
But  in  comparing  even  this  with  the  original  the  Bible 
student  feels  at  every  step,  as  he  feels  a  thousand 
times  elsewhere  in  such  a  comparison,  that  the  revi- 
sers were    too    much   handicapped  by  a  well-meant 


12  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

agreement  at  the  start,  to  retain  the  phraseology  of 
the  authorised  version  wherever  possible  without  too 
much  injury  to  the  sense  of  the  original.  Here  as  else- 
where they  have  confessedly  often  failed  to  give  the 
best  possible  rendering,  perpetuating  thereby  not  a 
few  incorrect  notions  if  not  also  in  some  cases  some 
doubtful  doctrines. 

While  therefore  scholars  readily  recognise  many 
changes  for  the  better  in  the  rendering  of  this  Song  by 
the  revisers,  they  also  detect  not  a  few  instances  where 
the  meaning  might  have  been  greatly  improved  by  a 
departure  from  the  old  phraseology.  Take,  for  ex- 
ample, Chapter  7,  verse  2,  in  the  Song.  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  delicacy  merely  which  induces  me  to  substi- 
tute the  word  waist  for  the  word  navel,  and  the  word 
body  for  the  word  belly.  There  is  nothing  in  the  navel 
alone  to  suggest  a  round  goblet  full  of  wine,  while,  by 
the  aid  of  a  little  poetic  fancy,  the  waist  may  suggest 
it.  Neither  is  there  anything  in  the  belly  alone,  as 
that  word  is  now  used  by  all  English  speaking  peo- 
ples, to  suggest  a  heap  of  wheat  encircled  with  lilies, 
while  a  well-formed  body,  as  that  word  is  now  used  to 
include  the  central  and  principal  parts  of  the  human 
frame,  may  easily  suggest  the  figure  used.  These 
several  words  in  the  original  mean  what  the  transla- 
tors have  given  as  their  English  equivalents,  but  they 
mean  also  waist  and  body  respectively.  I  am  sure  that 
the  reader  will  appreciate  the  change. 

Again,  the  Hebrew  text  can  never  be  translated 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  POEM.  I  3 

into  our  language  literally  so  as  to  be  intelligible.  For 
that  matter  no  dead  language  can,  and  very  few  living 
languages;  hence  in  all  translations  explanatory  words 
are  frequently  used  of  necessity.  In  the  following 
rendering  I  have  availed  myself  of  this  necessary  pre- 
rogative, supplying  adverbs  and  prepositions  and  other 
words  that  seem  necessary  to  bring  out  the  meaning 
of  the  original  by  making  the  text  correspond  with  the 
idiom  of  the  English  language.  For  example  at  Chap- 
ter 2,  verse  6,  the  heroine  is  made  to  say  both  in  the 
old  and  in  the  new  versions :  "  His  left  hand  is  under 
my  head  and  his  right  hand  doth  embrace  me. "  There 
is  no  verb  in  the  original  from  which  our  is  can  be  ob- 
tained and  the  tense  of  the  verb  to  be  supplied  can  as 
well  be  in  the  future  as  in  the  present;  besides,  it  avoids 
a  false  statement  not  justifiable  even  by  poetic  licence, 
for  as  a  matter  of  fact  no  left  hand  was  under  her  head 
nor  was  any  right  hand  embracing  her.  But  even  this 
change  of  tense  still  leaves  the  meaning  obscure,  or 
rather  leaves  the  sentence  meaningless.  The  shep- 
herdess is  protesting  against  the  caresses  of  the  lecher- 
ous Solomon  and  saying  of  her  shepherd  lover:  "Only 
his  left  hand  shall  sustain  my  head  and  only  his  right 
hand  shall  embrace  me;"  meaning  that  none  but  her 
virtuous  Shulammite  shepherd  shall  be  allowed  the 
liberties  of  a  lover  ;  hence,  in  addition  to  changing 
the  tense  I  have  supplied  the  necessary  adverb. 

In  all  cases  I  have  omitted  such  distinctive  marks 
as  italics  and   quotations.     The  curious  reader  may 


14  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS   AGO. 

easily  compare  the  text  here  given  with  the  text  of  the 
revised  version  if  he  wishes  to  see  how  far  and  wherein 
I  have  departed  from  it ;  while  the  scholarly  reader 
may  compare  it  with  the  original  Hebrew  if  he  wishes 
to  see  what  liberties  I  have  taken  in  order  to  bring  out 
the  meaning  of  the  poem.  I  have  also  wholly  ignored 
the  artificial  chaptering  and  versing  of  the  text.  In 
no  other  way  can  the  connexion  be  preserved  which 
is  necessary  to  a  right  understanding  of  the  book. 

It  will  be  observed  that  I  have  not  followed  the 
suggestions  of  those  who  would  dignify  the  poem  by 
making  it  a  drama  and  introducing  acts  and  scenes  ac- 
cordingly. To  so  construe  it  involves  too  many  diffi- 
culties. One  of  these  is  so  great  that  no  two  of  those 
who  have  attempted  to  divide  it  into  acts  have  ever 
agreed  where  one  act  ends  and  another  begins,  neither 
can  they  agree  as  to  the  dramatis  persona.  I  have  sim- 
ply sought  to  restore  it  to  its  original  form  as  nearly  as 
that  can  be  ascertained  after  the  lapse  of  so  many  cen- 
turies, as  it  was  read  or  recited  by  the  common  people, 
three  thousand  years  ago,  whether  they  were  captives 
by  the  rivers  of  Babylon  or  of  Assyria,  or  were  slaves 
on  the  banks  of  their  own  Jordan,  with  only  such 
equipments  as  might  be  improvised  for  the  occasion, 
by  slaves  and  captives.  Classifying  it  with  the  unpre- 
tentious dialogue  places  it  within  the  reach  of  the  com- 
mon people,  who  could  read  or  recite  it  without  the 
expensive  paraphernalia  of  the  theatre. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  POEM.  1 5 

The  scene  opens  in  the  gorgeous  country  seat  of 
the  wealthy  and  dissipated  King  Solomon,  where  were 
houses  and  vineyards  and  orchards  and  gardens,  with 
much  silver  and  gold  and  cattle  and  men  servants  and 
women  servants  and  all  the  peculiar  wealth  of  kings, 
including  many  women  and  much  wine.  It  was  early 
in  the  reign  of  that  famous  monarch.  His  harem  at 
that  time  had  only  sixty  women  who  posed  as  wives, 
and  only  eighty  who  were  classed  as  concubines,  what- 
ever the  difference  between  them  may  have  been.  La- 
ter these  were  increased  to  seven  hundred  wives  and 
three  hundred  concubines.  It  was  in  the  process  of 
multiplying  these  wives  that  the  incidents  of  the  story 
belong. 

The  heroine  of  the  story  is  a  beautiful  sun-burnt 
maiden,  who  had  been  brought  from  her  country-home 
in  Northern  Palestine  to  this  accumulation  of  splendors. 
To  assume,  as  some  do,  that  she  had  been  captured 
by  a  band  of  brigands  and  taken  by  force  to  the  king's 
harem,  is  to  do  violence  to  every  known  law  of  human 
nature.  Unwilling  captives  would  soon  transform  a 
harem  into  a  hell  from  which  the  would-be  lord  would 
flee  for  dear  life.  Not  one  of  the  possible  pleasures 
of  such  an  accumulation  of  the  means  of  sensual  en- 
joyments could  be  found  there.  Solomon  was  too 
wise  even  in  his  most  abandoned  moods  to  do  such 
violence  to  every  law  of  lust.  The  harem  was  not  a 
prison  for  unwilling  captives,  to  be  obtained  or  re- 
tained by  force,  but  a  place  with  such  attractions  as 


l6       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

to  make  it  a  desirable  home  as  compared  with  the  or- 
dinary home-life  of  the  women  of  Palestine  at  that 
time.  We  must  not  form  our  estimate  of  the  lot  of  a 
second  or  a  second-hundredth  wife  of  that  period  by 
our  views  of  polygamy  to-day.  Frequent  and  devas- 
tating wars  made  the  disparity  in  numbers  between 
males  and  females  very  great,  and  the  honor  of  moth- 
erhood removed  from  a  multiplicity  of  wives  most  of 
what  now  makes  polygamy  abhorrent. 

The  harem  was  replenished  through  the  agency  of 
procurers,  whose  business  it  was  to  travel  through  the 
country  and  induce  handsome  women  to  become  in- 
mates. Human  nature  is  not  so  changed  in  these 
three  thousand  years  that  we  need  suppose  that  the 
methods  of  these  procurers  were  essentially  different 
from  the  methods  of  men  and  women  of  their  class  to- 
day. Possibly  in  no  case  was  their  purpose  fully  dis- 
closed at  the  first.  The  hard  lot  of  women,  especially 
in  the  rural  districts,  made  it  easy  then,  as  it  is  too 
easy  now,  for  a  plausible  man  or  woman  to  persuade 
young  women  to  exchange  their  country  surroundings 
and  hard  work  for  the  easier  lot  of  an  inmate  of  a 
king's  palace.  Once  there,  under  whatever  induce- 
ment, they  were  put  into  the  hands  of  governesses, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  gain  their  consent  to  yield  to  the 
lust  of  the  king,  either  as  a  wife  or  concubine.  Light 
domestic  duties  and  luxurious  living  were  combined 
until  the  consent  was  obtained ;  the  king  himself 
taking  no  prominent  part  in  these  preparatory  pro- 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  POEM.  1 7 

ceedings,  probably  knowing  nothing  of  the  novitiate 
until  her  consent  had  been  obtained  to  become  his 
wife. 

Our  heroine  was  a  rustic  girl  whose  hard  life  was 
not  most  agreeable.  In  her  earlier  girlhood  she  had 
been  detailed  to  the  duty  of  guarding  the  family  flock. 
This  had  brought  her  into  the  company  of  neighboring 
shepherds,  among  whom  was  a  handsome  young  man, 
between  whom  and  her  there  had  grown  a  strong  mu- 
tual attachment.  She  had  two  half-brothers  who  were 
displeased  with  this  love-affair.  Nothing  else  proving 
effectual,  in  order  to  break  it  off,  they  transferred  their 
sister  from  the  flocks  to  the  vineyard,  subjecting  her 
to  exposure  to  the  hot  sun  and  to  the  harder  work  of 
dressing  the  vines.  While  in  rebellion  against  this 
oppression,  she  was  visited  by  one  or  more  of  the  pro- 
curers for  Solomon's  harem.  It  was  not  difficult,  un- 
der the  circumstances,  to  persuade  her  that  in  the 
palace  of  the  king  she  would  find  better  treatment 
and  more  satisfactory  remuneration  than  she  was  re- 
ceiving as  a  vine-dresser.  How  long  she  had  been  in 
her  new  home  when  the  story  begins,  need  not  mat- 
ter ;  it  had  been  long  enough  for  those  who  had  her 
in  charge  to  venture  to  unfold  to  her  the  ultimate 
purpose  for  which  she  had  been  brought  into  the 
king's  family. 

The  next  most  important  person,  the  hero  of  the 
story,  is  the  Shulammite  shepherd,  the  devoted  lover 
of  the  brave  young  woman,  who  so  persistently  re- 


1 8       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

fused  to  abandon  him,  and  to  exchange  his  love  for 
what  was  proposed  to  her  as  a  wife  of  the  lecherous 
king. 

The  next  most  important  characters  are  a  trio  of 
middle-aged  women,  from  among  the  wives  of  the 
king,  the  governesses  to  whose  charge  she  had  been 
committed,  who  are  called  in  the  poem  "Daughters  of 
Jerusalem,"  or  "Daughters  of  Zion."  This  young 
shepherdess  was  from  the  tribe  of  Issachar.  Her  home 
was  far  away.  The  country  of  her  birth  was  fertile, 
and  abounded  in  vineyards  and  flocks,  but  her  people 
were  humble,  though  thrifty;  hence  the  splendor  of 
the  city-life,  and  especially  of  the  king's  palace,  could 
but  have  a  charm  for  them,  which  made  them  regard 
the  woman  who  wore  a  part  of  these  splendors  as 
entitled  to  such  distinction  as  is  implied  in  those 
titles. 

We  may  readily  suppose  that  in  ordinary  cases  the 
task  of  these  women  was  not  a  difficult  one.  There 
was  so  little  in  the  humdrum  of  domestic  life  in  the 
country  to  satisfy  the  laudable  aspirations  of  a  spirited 
woman  and  so  many  attractions  in  the  surroundings  of 
the  court  that  it  must  have  been  an  easy  task  usually, 
under  the  loose  notions  of  that  period  concerning  the 
sacredness  of  marriage,  to  gain  the  consent  of  the  new- 
comer to  the  conditions  of  her  remaining  ;  hence  the 
stubborn  and  persistent  resistance  of  this  Shulammite 
shepherdess  was  a  surprise  to  them. 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  POEM.  1 9 

This  is  all  beautifully  set  forth  in  the  poem  as  well 
as  is  the  honorable  womanly  course  of  the  trio  towards 
her  when  they  comprehend  her  situation. 

The  progress  of  inauguration  into  this  new  life  was 
a  simple  one.  The  new  victim,  who  had  been  allured 
to  the  palace  under  the  impression  that  she  was  to 
have  some  honorable  and  remunerative  employment 
about  the  extensive  establishment,  was  clothed  in  bet- 
ter raiment,  and  fed  on  better  food,  and  regaled  on 
more  and  better  wine  than  she  had  been  accustomed 
to,  until  her  governesses  had  gained  her  consent  to 
forever  abandon  her  country  home  and  the  associa- 
tions and  lover  of  her  childhood,  for  the  pomp  and 
splendors  of  a  queen.  The  luxuriant  appointments  of 
the  palace ;  its  baths,  its  tables,  and  its  wardrobes 
usually  did  the  work ;  hence  it  is  untenable  to  assume, 
as  some  do,  that  Solomon  himself  at  any  time  ad- 
dresses the  maiden  in  words  of  adulation  or  entreaty, 
or  addresses  her  at  all. 

Solomon  himself  plays  but  a  passive  and  merely  a 
coincidental  part  in  the  poem.  He  is  made  to  be  per- 
sonally unconscious  of  what  is  going  on  in  his  own  be- 
half in  the  palace.  He  appears  in  the  distance  in  a 
royal  pageant,  but  not  in  any  sense  for  the  purpose  of 
settling  the  question  under  discussion  by  the  women 
and  the  maiden,  though  the  women  readily  seize  upon 
the  event  to  supplement  their  own  arguments.  He 
was  carried  in  his  splendid  car  of  state,  accompanied 
by  one  of  his  queens,  and  was  greeted  with  loud  plaud- 


20       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

its.     What  effect  this  had  upon  the  shepherdess  ap- 
pears in  the  poem. 

The  half-brothers  of  the  shepherdess  play  a  sorry 
part  in  the  affair,  both  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  end- 
ing, and  the  neighbors  turn  out  to  congratulate  the 
lovers  on  the  successful  issue  of  the  struggle  when 
they  return  to  the  scenes  of  their  earlier  courtship. 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS. 


/TAHE  poem  begins  abruptly.  The  women,  her  keep- 
-*■  ers,  had  just  feasted  her  at  the  family  table  of 
the  King's  household.  Wine  had  constituted  a  con- 
spicuous part  of  the  bill  of  fare,  and  the  women  had 
praised  the  luxuries  which  the  King's  family  enjoyed, 
contrasting  it  with  the  simple  fare  of  a  vine-dresser 
among  the  hills  of  Issachar ;  assuring  her  that  all  this 
was  at  the  service  of  a  wife  of  the  King.  The  purpose 
for  which  she  had  been  enticed  from  her  country  home 
and  from  the  shepherd  youth  whom  she  loved,  was 
now  for  the  first  time  broached  to  her.  It  was  not  to 
be  a  domestic  in  the  King's  palace,  but  to  become  one 
of  his  wives,  already  numbering  sixty.  At  this  she 
promptly  rebelled.  She  would  never  consent  to  the 
lustful  embraces  of  one  whom  she  could  not  love, 
though  he  be  a  king,  and  informing  the  women  she 
had  a  lover  among  the  shepherds  of  Shulam  she  breaks 
out  : 

"  Let  him  kiss  me  with  the  kisses  of  his  mouth." 

Then  turning  to  the  lover  himself  who  in  the  dia- 
logue is  made  to  be  opportunely  present  she  says : 


22  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

' '  For  thy  love  is  better  than  wine. 
Thine  ointments  have  a  goodly  fragrance, 
Thy  name  is  as  ointment  poured  forth, 
Therefore  do  maidens  love  thee. 
Draw  me  after  thee,  let  us  run  ! 
The  King  hath  brought  me  into  his  harem, 
We  will  greatly  rejoice  in  thee, 
We  will  esteem  thy  caress  more  than  wine, 
Rightly  do  the  maidens  love  thee." 

Addressing  the  women  she  continues  : 

"  I  am  black  but  I  am  comely, 
O,  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem  ; 
Like  the  tents  of  Kedar, 
Like  the  pavilions  of  Solomon. 
Despise  me  not  because  I  am  swarthy, 
Because  the  sun  hath  scorched  me, 
My  half-brothers  were  incensed  against  me, 
They  made  me  keeper  of  the  vineyards, 
Mine  own  vineyard  I  have  not  kept." 

Again  addressing  the  lover,  she  says  : 

' '  Tell  me,  thou  whom  my  soul  loveth, 
Where  thou  feedest  thy  flock,  where  thou  makest  it  to  rest  at 

noon, 
For  why  should  I  be  as  a  woman  veiled, 
Beside  the  flocks  of  thy  companions  ?  " 

'  The  answer  of  the  women  to  this  frantic  outburst 
of  love  and  fidelity  is  a  compliment  to  the  woman- 
heart  that  had  survived  all  the  blandishments  of  the 
royal  household.  It  at  once  awakened  recollections 
of  earlier  days  when  the  voice   and  society  of  some 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  23 

rustic  lover  was  all  the  world  to  them,  but  from  whom 
they  had  been  allured  by  the  displays  of  ease  and  lux- 
ury in  the  King's  palace,  and  whose  love  they  had 
bartered  away  for  the  dubious  honors  and  the  unsatis- 
fying pleasures  of  the  King's  court  and  the  King's 
chamber.  Moved  to  sympathy  by  her  appeals  to  them 
and  to  her  lover  ;  and  in  their  woman-hearts  wishing 
she  might  escape  the  fate  that  had  befallen  themselves, 
they  reply  : 

' '  If  thou  knowest  not,  O  thou  fairest  among  women  ! 
Get  thee  again  to  the  footsteps  of  thy  flock, 
And  feed  thy  kids  beside  the  shepherd's  tent." 

The  shepherd  now  addresses  his  lover,  returning 
the  personal  compliment  she  had  so  handsomely  paid 
him  : 

"  I  have  compared  thee,  O,  my  love  ! 
To  a  steed  in  Pharaoh's  chariots. 
Thy  cheeks  are  comely  with  plaits  of  hair, 
Thy  neck  with  strings  of  jewels." 

The  women,  to  neutralise  the  effect  of  this  compli- 
ment to  her  beauty  interpose,  saying  , 

"We  will  make  thee  plaits  of  gold, 
With  studs  of  silver,  if  thou  become  a  queen." 

The  shepherdess,  addressing  the  women,  pays  her 
lover  this  beautiful  compliment : 

' '  While  the  King  sat  at  his  table, 
My  spikenard  sent  forth  its  fragrance. 
But  my  beloved  is  unto  me  as  a  bundle  of  myrrh, 


24       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

That  lieth  between  my  breasts ; 

My  beloved  is  unto  me  as  a  cluster  of  campbire, 

From  the  vineyards  of  Engedi." 

The  following  playful  interchange  of  compliments 
between  the  two  lovers  cannot  be  excelled  in  any  love 
story,  nor  often  in  real  life.  It  is  both  delicate  and 
extravagant.     He  begins  : 

' '  Behold  thou  art  fair,  my  love,  behold  thou  art  fair, 
Thine  eyes  are  as  doves'  eyes." 

To  this  she  replies  : 

' '  Behold  thou  art  fair,  my  beloved,  yea,  very  pleasant, 
Also  our  couch  is  green." 

In  answer  to  this  allusion  to  the  place  of  their  out- 
door courtships  he  refers  to  the  cedars  and  firs  under 
which  they  sat : 

' '  The  beams  of  our  house  are  cedars, 
And  our  rafters  are  firs." 

There  is  a  spice  of  humor  in  her  self-praise  : 

"  I  am  a  rose  of  Sharon, 
A  lily  of  the  valley." 

But  he  is  equal  to  the  occasion  and  turns  her  self- 
compliment  to  good  account  by  accepting  it  with  em- 
phasis : 

"As  a  lily  among  the  thorns, 
So  is  my  beloved  among  the  daughters." 

Turning  to  the  women  the  shepherdess  continues 
to  compliment  her  lover  and  avow  her  fidelity  to  him  : 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  25 

"  As  an  apple-tree  among  the  trees  of  the  forest, 
So  is  my  beloved  among  the  sons. 
I  sat  under  his  shadow  with  great  delight, 
And  his  fruit  was  sweet  to  my  taste. 
He  brought  me  to  his  wine-house, 
And  his  banner  over  me  was  love. 
Stay  me  with  grapes,  comfort  me  with  apples, 
For  I  am  sick  of  love. 
Only  his  left  hand  shall  sustain  my  head, 
And  only  his  right  hand  shall  embrace  me. 
I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  roes  and  by  the  hinds  of  the  field, 
That  you  stir  not  up  nor  awaken  love, 
Until  it  please." 

This  appeal  to  the  women  to  not  attempt  to  force 
love  is  both  pathetic  and  philosophic.  Love  finds  its 
own  time  and  object  without  the  intermeddling  of 
others.     The  shepherdess  continues  abstractedly: 

' '  The  voice  of  my  beloved  !  behold  he  cometh, 
Leaping  upon  the  mountains,  skipping  upon  the  hills, 
My  beloved  is  like  a  roe  or  a  young  hart. 
Behold  !  he  standeth  behind  our  wall, 
He  cometh  in  at  the  window, 
He  peepeth  through  the  lattice. 
My  beloved  spake  and  said  unto  me  : 
Rise  up  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away, 
For  lo  !  the  winter  is  past, 
The  rain  is  over  and  gone ; 
The  flowers  appear  upon  the  earth, 
The  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  has  come 
And  the  voice  of  the  turtle  is  heard  in  our  land. 
The  fig-tree  ripens  her  figs 


26  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

And  the  vines  are  in  blossom  ; 
They  give  forth  their  fragrance." 

Turning  to  the  shepherd  again,  she  says  : 

"Arise,  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away, 

0  my  dove  !  thou  art  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  in  the  covert 

of  the  steep  place  ; 
Let  me  see  thy  face,  let  me  hear  thy  voice, 
For  charming  is  thy  voice  and  thy  features  are  lovely. 
Take  us  the  foxes,  the  little  foxes  that  ruin  the  vineyards, 
For  our  vineyards  are  in  blossom." 

Turning  to  address  the  women,  she  continues  : 

' '  My  beloved  is  mine  and  I  am  his, 
He  feedeth  his  flocks  among  the  lilies 
Until  the  day  be  cool  and  the  shadows  flee  away." 

Again  addressing  the  shepherd,  she  says  : 

"Turn,  my  beloved,  and  be  thou  like  a  roe  or  a  young  hart 
Upon  the  mountains  of  Bether." 

She  relates  a  dream  : 
"By  night,  on  my  bed,  I  sought  him  whom  my  soul  loveth, 

1  sought  him  but  I  found  him  not, 

I  said  I  will  rise  now  and  go  about  the  city, 

In  the  streets  and  in  the  broad  ways, 

I  will  seek  him  whom  my  soul  loveth  : 

I  sought  him  in  my  dream  but  I  found  him  not. 

The  watchmen  that  go  about  the  city  found  me  ; 

I  said  to  them,  saw  ye  him  whom  my  soul  loveth  ? 

I  was  but  a  little  passed  from  them 

When  I  found  him  whom  my  soul  loveth  ; 

I  caught  him  and  would  not  let  him  go 

Until  he  had  brought  me  to  my  mother's  house, 

Into  the  chamber  of  her  that  gave  me  birth." 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  27 

Again,  turning  to  the  women  she  charges  them  not 
to  attempt  to  force  love. 

"I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  roes  and  the  hinds  of  the  field, 
That  ye  stir  not  up  nor  awaken  love 
Until  it  please." 

At  this  point  a  royal  cortege  is  seen  in  the  distance. 
It  had  no  necessary  connexion  with  the  work  of  recon- 
ciling this  pure  country  girl  to  the  proposed  new  con- 
ditions, but  it  offered  a  new  argument,  as  they  sup- 
posed ;  hence  they  called  attention  to  it  and  especially 
to  the  fact  that  one  of  the  queens  was  a  partaker  with 
the  King  of  all  its  magnificence.  As  it  was  only  one 
of  the  frequent  parades  of  the  King  they  sought  to  ex- 
cite her  womanly  love  of  display  by  the  assurance  that 
a  like  honor  awaited  her  if  she  would  consent  to  be- 
come a  queen  also.  One  of  the  women  calls  attention 
to  it  by  asking  : 

' '  Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  out  of  the  wilderness  like  pillars 
of  smoke  ? 
Perfumed  with  myrrh  and  frankincense, 
With  all  the  powders  of  the  merchant  ?" 

A  second  woman  : 

"  Behold  it  is  the  litter  of  Solomon ; 
Three-score  mighty  men  are  about  it, 
Of  the  mighty  men  of  Israel. 
They  all  handle  the  sword  and  are  expert  in  war, 
Every  man  hath  his  sword  on  his  thigh, 
Because  of  fear  in  the  night." 


28       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

The  third  woman  takes  it  up  : 

' '  King  Solomon  made  himself  a  car  of  state 
Of  the  wood  of  Lebanon. 
He  made  the  posts  thereof  of  silver, 
The  bottoms  thereof  of  gold,  the  seat  thereof  of  purple. 
In  the  midst  thereof  sits  a  sparkling  beauty 
From  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem." 

The  shepherdess's  answer  to  all  this  is  one  of  the 
finest  touches  in  the  whole  poem.  Reduced  to  plain 
prose  it  is  equivalent  to  saying  :  if  such  splendors  have 
attractions  for  you,  you  are  welcome  to  them  all,  for 
they  do  not  move  me  : 

'  *  Go  forth,  O  daughters  of  Zion,  and  behold  King  Solomon 
With  the  crown  wherewith  his  mother  crowned  him  in  the 

day  of  his  espousals ; 
And  in  the  day  of  the  gladness  of  his  heart." 

The  following  rhapsody  of  the  shepherd  lover  has 
no  rival  in  any  language  for  hyperbole.  Compared 
with  it  Shakespeare's  most  famous, 

"But  you,  O  you, 
So  perfect  and  so  peerless  are  created 
Of  every  creature's  best," 

seems  quite  tame.  It  is  such  touches  of  nature  that 
preserved  this  poem  through  those  centuries  of  war 
and  captivity  and  which  ultimately  gave  it  a  place  in 
the  sacred  literature  of  the  restored  Hebrews,  and  still 
later,  a  place  among  the  sacred  books  of  Christians  ; 
and  now,  after  three  thousand  years  many  a  gray- 
headed  sire  will  read  it  and  recall  the  time  in  his  own 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  2g 

experience  when,  as  far  as  he  was  able,  he  indited  just 
such  a  sonnet  to  a  pair  of  dove's  eyes  and  scarlet  lips, 
and  a  pretty  neck  with  teeth  and  temples  to  match. 

"  Behold  thou  art  fair,  my  love,  behold  thou  art  fair, 
Thine  eyes  are  as  dove's  eyes  behind  thy  veil, 
Thy  hair  is  as  a  flock  of  goats 
That  lie  along  the  side  of  Gilead  ; 
Thy  teeth  are  like  a  flock  of  sheep  newly  shorn, 
Which  come  up  from  the  washing, 
Whereof  every  one  of  them  hath  twins, 
And  not  one  of  them  is  bereaved. 
Thy  lips  are  like  a  thread  of  scarlet 
And  thy  mouth  is  comely  ; 
Thy  cheek  is  like  a  side  of  a  pomegranate 
Behind  thy  veil. 

Thy  neck  is  like  the  tower  of  David,  builded  for  an  armory, 
Wherein  there  hang  a  thousand  bucklers 
And  all  the  shields  of  mighty  men. 
Thy  two  breasts  are  like  two  twin  fawns  of  a  roe 
Which  feed  among  the  lilies." 

The  shepherdess,  pretending  with  true  womanly 
affectation  to  desire  no  more  of  such  adulation,  seeks 
to  interrupt  him  by  saying  : 

"Until  the  day  be  cool  and  the  shadows  lengthen, 
I  will  get  me  to  the  mountain  of  myrrh 
And  to  the  hill  of  frankincense." 

But  he  was  not  to  be  silenced.  The  interruption 
only  intensified  his  speech.  Beginning  at  the  same 
beginning  as  before  he  becomes  much  more  violent : 

' '  Thou  art  fair  my  love, 
And  there  is  no  spot  in  thee. 


30  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

Come  with  me  from  Lebanon,  my  spouse, 

With  me  from  Lebanon. 

Look  upon  me  from  the  top  of  Amena, 

From  the  top  of  Senir  and  Hermon, 

From  the  depths  of  the  lion's  den, 

From  the  mountains  of  leopards. 

Thou  hast  ravished  ray  heart,  my  sister,  my  spouse, 

Thou  hast  ravished  my  heart  with  one  glance  of  thine  eyes, 

With  one  of  the  ringlets  that  encircle  thy  neck. 

How  pleasant  is  thy  love,  my  sister,  my  spouse  ; 

How  much  better  is  thine  embrace  than  wine  ! 

And  the  odor  of  thy  perfumes  than  all  manner  of  spices. 

Thy  lips,  O  my  spouse,  distil  odors  as  the  honey-comb, 

Honey  and  milk  are  concealed  under  thy  tongue, 

And  the  fragrance  of  thy  garments  is  like  the  fragrance  of 

Lebanon, 
A  garden  enclosed,  is  my  sister,  my  spouse, 
A  spring  shut  up,  a  fountain  sealed  ; 
A  paradise,  where  the  pomegranate  blossoms,  together  with 

precious  fruits, 
Camphire  with  spikenard  plants, 
Spikenard  and  saffron, 
Calamus  and  cinnamon  with  all  manner  of  sweet-smelling 

plants, 
Myrrh  and  aloes  with  all  the  chief  spices. 
Thou  art  a  fountain  of  gardens, 
A  well  of  living  waters, 
And  flowing  streams  from  Lebanon. 


Awake,  O  north  wind  and  come  thou  south, 
Blow  upon  my  garden  that  the  fragrance  thereof  may  flow 
out ! " 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  31 

The  shepherdess  answers : 

"Let  my  beloved  come  into  his  garden, 
And  eat  his  precious  fruits." 

The  shepherd : 

' '  I  have  come  into  my  garden,  my  sister,  my  spouse, 
I  have  gathered  my  myrrh  and  my  spices, 
I  have  eaten  my  honey-comb  with  my  honey 
I  have  drunk  my  wine  with  my  milk. 

Eat,  O  friends, 

Drink,  yea,  drink  abundantly." 

The  shepherdess,  that  she  may  the  more  impress 
her  keepers,  the  women,  that  it  was  cruel  to  separate 
her  from  her  devoted  lover,  relates  another  recent 
dream  : 

' '  I  was  asleep,  but  my  heart  was  awake, 

It  was  the  voice  of  my  beloved.     As  he  knocked, 

He  said,  open  to  me,  my  sister,  my  love,  my  dove,  my  per- 
fect one  ; 

For  my  head  is  covered  with  dew, 

My  locks  with  the  drops  of  the  night. 

To  tease  him  I  said,  I  have  put  off  my  coat,  how  shall  I  put 
it  on? 

I  have  washed  my  feet,  why  should  I  soil  them  ? 

At  this  my  beloved  withdrew  his  hand  from  the  latch, 

And  my  bosom  quivered  thereat. 

I  then  rose  up  to  open  to  my  beloved, 

And  my  hands  dropped  with  myrrh, 

And  my  fingers  with  liquid  myrrh 

Overflowed  upon  the  handle  of  the  lock. 


32       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

When  I  opened  to  my  beloved, 

Behold  my  beloved  had  withdrawn  himself,  and  was  gone. 

(When  I  spake  to  him  I  was  bereft  of  reason.) 

I  sought  him,  but  I  could  not  find  him ; 

I  called,  but  he  gave  me  no  answer  ; 

I  dreamed  the  watchmen  that  go  about  the  city  found  me 

They  smote  me,  they  wounded  me, 

And  the  keepers  on  the  wall  took  away  my  veil : 

I  adjure  you,  O  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem,  if  ye  find  my 

beloved, 
His  mouth  is  most  sweet,  yea,  his  person  is  altogether  lovely. 
That  you  tell  him  I  am  dying  of  love." 

Again  the  enthusiasm  of  the  young  shepherdess 
aroused  the  sympathy  of  the  women,  who  had  not  for- 
gotten experiences  in  their  own  earlier  lives  not  greatly 
unlike  this,  hence,  instead  of  longer  persisting  in  at- 
tempts to  persuade  their  ward  to  consent  to  become 
such  as  they  were,  they  offer  assistance  to  her,  or,  at 
least,  they  wish  to  know  more  about  the  young  man 
she  had  left  behind  ;  hence  they  ask  : 

"What  is  thy  beloved  more  than  another  beloved, 
O  thou  fairest  among  women  ? 
What  is  thy  beloved  more  than  another  beloved, 
That  thou  shouldst  so  adjure  us  ?  " 

This  gave  the  shepherdess  occasion  to  describe  him 
as  she  viewed  him,  and,  unless  love  was  blind,  he  was 
worthy  her  love  : 

4  My  beloved  is  white  and  ruddy, 
The  fairest  among  ten  thousand, 
His  head  is  as  the  most  fine  gold, 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  33 

His  locks  are  curling  and  black  as  a  raven, 

His  eyes  are  as  doves'  eyes,  reflecting  in  the  water-brooks, 

Washing  in  milk  and  sitting  in  full  streams, 

His  cheeks  are  as  a  bed  of  balsam,  as  towers  of  perfumes, 

His  lips  are  as  lilies,  dropping  liquid  myrrh, 

His  hands  are  as  rings  of  gold  set  with  beryl, 

His  reins  are  as  ivory  work  overlaid  with  sapphires, 

His  legs  are  as  pillars  of  marble  set  on  pedestals  of  gold, 

His  appearance  is  as  Lebanon,  beautiful  as  the  cedars, 

Such  is  my  beloved,  such  is  my  friend, 
O  daughters  of  Jerusalem." 

This  enthusiastic  description  of  the  absent  lover 
only  increased  the  interest  which  the  women  felt  in 
their  ward,  and  they  wish  to  hear  more  about  him 
hence  they  ask ; 

' '  Whither  is  thy  beloved  gone, 

0  thou  fairest  among  women  ? 
Whither  is  thy  beloved  turned  aside, 
That  we  may  seek  him  with  thee  ? " 

The  shepherdess  : 

' '  My  beloved  has  gone  down  to  his  garden  to  the  beds  of 
balsam, 
To  feed  his  flocks  in  the  garden  and  to  gather  lilies. 

1  am  my  beloved's  and  he  is  mine, 

My  beloved  who  feedeth  his  flocks  among  the  lilies." 

The  shepherd  again  praises  the  beauty  of  his  spouse, 
repeating,  as  would  be  natural,  much  that  he  had  said 
before  : 

"  Thou  art  beautiful,  O  my  love,  as  Tirzah, 
Charming  as  Jerusalem, 


34       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

Terrible  as  an  army  in  battle. 
Turn  away  thine  eyes  from  me, 
For  they  have  overcome  me. 
Thy  hair  is  like  a  flock  of  goats 
Lying  along  the  side  of  Gilead. 
Thy  teeth  are  like  a  flock  of  sheep 
Which  have  just  been  washed, 
Whereof  every  one  hath  twins, 
And  none  is  bereaved  among  them. 
Thy  cheek  is  as  a  slice  of  pomegranate 
Behind  thy  veil." 

To  show  the  great  wrong  there  would  be  in  press- 
ing one  so  dear  to  him  into  a  harem  already  crowded, 
he  says : 

"  There  are  in  the  household  of  Solomon  already  three-score 

queens,  and  four-score  concubines, 
And  young  maidens  without  number. 
My  dove,  my  perfect  one,  is  but  one  ; 
She  is  the  only  one  of  her  mother ; 
She  is  the  choice  one  of  her  that  gave  her  birth. 
The  young  saw  her  and  called  her  blessed, 
The  queens  and  the  concubines  saw  her  and  they  praised 

her  saying  : 
Who  is  she  that  looketh  forth  like  the  morning 
Fair  as  the  moon, 
Clear  as  the  sun, 
Terrible  as  an  army  in  battle  ?  " 

The  shepherdess  here  narrates  a  reverie  : 

"  In  fancy  I  went  down  to  the  garden  of  nuts, 
To  see  the  green  plants  of  the  valley; 
To  see  whether  the  vine  budded, 
And  the  pomegranates  were  in  flower. 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  35 

Before  I  was  aware,  my  desire  set  me 
Among  the  chariots  of  my  people." 

The  interest  of  the  women  in  the  absent  lover  was 
so  aroused  that  they  desire  to  see  him,  hence  they  say: 

"Return,  O  Shulammite  shepherd, 
Return,  return,  that  we  may  see  thee." 

The  shepherdess  rebukes  their  idle  curiosity  by 
saying : 

' '  Why  wish  ye  to  look  upon  the  Shulammite, 
As  upon  the  dance  of  angels  at  Mahanaim  ?  " 

The  scene  of  the  following  is  in  the  ladies'  toilette. 
The  women,  notwithstanding  the  sympathy  they  had 
expressed  for  the  unwilling  victim  of  their  scheme,  de- 
termined to  make  one  more  effort  to  overcome  her  ob- 
jections. This  time  they  resort  to  flattery  by  praising 
her  personal  beauty.  She  had  just  come  from  the 
bath  and  had  put  on  only  her  slippers,  when  they  be- 
gan, hoping  to  so  arouse  her  vanity  that  she  would  at 
once  discard  her  country  lover  : 

' '  How  beautiful  are  thy  feet  in  sandals,  O  prince's  daughter  ! 
Thy  round  thighs  are  like  ornaments, 
The  work  of  the  hand  of  a  cunning  workman. 
Thy  waist  is  like  a  round  goblet, 
Wherein  aromatic  wine  is  abundant. 
Thy  body  is  like  a  heap  of  wheat, 
Encircled  with  lilies. 
Thy  two  breasts  are  like  two  fawns 
That  are  twins  of  a  roe. 
Thy  neck  is  like  a  tower  of  ivory. 


36  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

Thine  eyes  are  like  the  pools  of  Heshbon  by  the  gate  of 

Bathrabbim ; 
Thy  nose  is  like  the  side  of  the  tower  of  Lebanon, 
Which  looketh  towards  Damascus ; 
Thine  head  upon  thee  is  like  Carrael, 
And  the  locks  of  thine  head  are  like  threads  of  purple  ; 
The  King  will  be  held  captive  in  the  tresses  thereof. 
How  fair  and  how  charming  art  thou, 

0  love,  for  delights  ! 

Thy  stature  is  like  a  palm-tree, 

And  thy  breasts  are  like  to  clusters  of  grapes." 

The  shepherd  interposes  with  his  claim  to  all  these 
charms : 

' '  I  said  I  will  climb  up  into  my  palm-tree, 

1  will  take  hold  of  the  branches  thereof ; 

Thy  breasts  shall  be  to  me  as  clusters  of  grapes, 
And  the  odor  of  thy  breath  like  apples  ; 
And  thy  mouth  as  the  best  of  wine, 
That  goeth  down  sweetly  for  my  beloved, 
Causing  the  lips  of  those  that  are  asleep  to  speak." 

The  shepherdess  answers  the  appeal  of  the  women, 
and  she  consents  to  the  proposition  of  the  lover,  thus 
settling  the  question  by  saying  : 

"  I  am  my  beloved's, 

And  his  desire  is  towards  me. ' ' 
Thereupon  the  lover  proposes  that  they  leave  the 
palace  and  go  forth  : 

"Come,  my  beloved,  let  us  go  forth  into  the  fields, 
Let  us  lodge  in  the  villages, 
Let  us  get  up  early  and  go  to  the  vines. 
Let  us  see  whether  the  vine-stalks  have  budded, 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  37 

And  the  tender  grapes  appear. 

Whether  the  pomegranate  be  in  flower  ; 

There  will  I  give  thee  my  caress. 

The  mandrakes  give  forth  fragrance, 

And  at  our  gates  are  all  manner  of  fruits,  both  new  and  old 

Which  I  have  laid  up  for  thee,  O  beloved !"    /7fifl 

The  shepherdess,  feeling  hampered  by  the  conven- 
tionalities of  the  times,  which  did  not  allow  her  to  em- 
brace her  lover  in  public,  yet  tolerated  the  osculation 
and  caressing  of  a  brother,  replies : 

"  O  that  thou  wert  as  my  brother, 
Who  nursed  at  the  breast  of  my  mother, 
So  that  when  I  should  meet  thee  without  I  could  embrace 

thee, 
And  none  would  despise  me  therefor! 
I  would  lead  thee  and  bring  thee  into  my  mother's  house, 
Where  thou  mightest  instruct  me, 
And  I  would  cause  thee  to  drink  of  spiced  wine, 
Of  the  sweet  wine  of  my  pomegranates." 

Turning  to  the  women,  she  says  : 

"  Only  his  left  hand  shall  sustain  my  head, 
And  only  his  right  hand  shall  embrace  me. 
I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
That  ye  stir  not  up  nor  awaken  love,  until  it  please." 

The  women  at  last  consent  to  her  leaving  the  pal- 
ace in  company  with  her  shepherd  lover,  who  escorted 
her  to  the  home  of  her  mother.  The  neighbors  seeing 
them  returning,  ask  : 

"Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from  the  wilderness, 
Leaning  upon  her  beloved  ?" 


38       LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

Before  reaching  the  house  they  stop  a  moment  un- 
der the  apple-tree,  which  had  often  listened  to  their 
mutual  avowals  of  love.  Once  there,  seated  upon  the 
rustic  seat  they  had  so  often  occupied,  he  recalls  other 
meetings  at  that  sacred  spot,  and  says  : 

' '  Under  this  apple-tree  I  first  aroused  thy  love. " 

Then,  pointing  to  the  house  beyond  the  garden,  he 

says  : 

"In  yonder  house  thy  mother  conceived  thee, 
There  she  was  in  travail  and  there  she  gave  thee  birth  ; 
Now  set  me  as  a  seal  upon  thine  heart,  as  a  bracelet  upon 

thine  arm, 
For  love  is  strong  as  death ; 
Jealousy  is  cruel  as  the  grave, 
Its  flames  are  flames  of  fire, 
Its  arrows  the  fire  of  Jehovah. 
Great  waters  cannot  quench  love, 
And  rivers  cannot  overwhelm  it." 

Then,  delicately  alluding  to  the  late  experience  of 
his  faithful  lover  in  resisting  the  blandishments  of  the 
King's  palace,  he  adds  : 

"If  a  man  would  offer  all  his  substance  for  love 
He  would  only  reap  confusion." 

The  two  half-brothers  now  appear.  They  had  lost 
none  of  their  opposition  to  this  love-affair.  At  first 
they  had  sought  to  break  it  off  by  taking  their  sister 
from  the  care  of  the  sheep,  which  afforded  too  many 
opportunities  for  the  lovers  to  meet  each  other,  and 
putting  her  to  the  harder  work  of  dressing  the  family 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  39 

vineyard.  This  failing,  they  had  connived  at,  if  they 
had  not  suggested  and  promoted,  the  scheme  of  get- 
ting her  into  Solomon's  harem.  For  their  sister  to  be 
a  wife  of  the  King,  though  only  one  of  many,  was  much 
preferable,  in  their  minds,  to  her  being  the  wife  of  a 
humble  shepherd,  even  if  some  personal  grudge  against 
their  young  neighbor  had  not  something  to  do  in  the 
case.  But  in  this  they  were  again  baffled,  and  they 
find  her  once  more  in  the  family  home,  more  devoted 
than  ever  to  her  rustic  lover.  Their  last  hope  now  is 
to  belittle  their  sister,  and  to  postpone,  if  not  to  en- 
tirely prevent,  the  marriage,  by  alleging  that  she  was 
too  young,  and  by  insinuating  other  and  grave  impedi- 
ments. They  derisively  ask  what  shall  be  the  wedding 
presents  in  the  case  of  a  marriage,  as  well  as  insinuate 
unfitness  for  wifehood.     They  say: 

' '  We  have  a  little  sister, 
And  she  hath  no  breasts  ; 
What  shall  we  do  for  our  sister 
In  the  day  when  she  shall  be  spoken  for  ? 
If  she  be  a  wall, 

We  will  build  upon  her  a  turret  of  silver  ; 
If  she  be  a  door, 
We  will  inclose  her  with  boards  of  cedar." 

Her  answer  is  both  womanly  and  defiant.  Recog- 
nising that  she  is  in  no  sense  under  obligations  to  them 
for  what  she  is,  and  what  she  hopes  to  be  soon,  the 
bride  of  one  who  will  be  to  her  a  wall  of  defence,  she 
says  : 


40  LOVERS  THREE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

"  I  have  been  a  wall, 
And  my  breasts  have  been  towers, 

Hence  I  was  in  ray  lover's  eyes  as  a  woman  that  finds  peace- 
Solomon  had  a  vineyard  at  Baal-hamon  ; 
He  let  out  the  vineyard  to  keepers, 
Every  one  to  bring,  as  rent,  a  thousand  of  silver. 
My  vineyard  is  in  front  of  me. 
Thou,  O  Solomon,  may  have  the  thousand, 
And  thy  keepers  may  have  two  hundred." 

The  shepherd : 

' '  Thou  that  dwellest  in  the  gardens, 
The  companions  are  listening  to  thy  voice, 
Cause  me  to  hear  it." 

The  shepherdess  : 

"  Make  haste,  my  beloved, 
And  be  thou  like  to  a  roe  or  a  young  hart 
Upon  the  mountain  of  spices." 

Ordinary  love  stories  end  in  the  marriage  of  the 
chief  characters.  This  does  not,  but  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  such  ,  constancy  on  the  part  of  each,  under  such 
inducements  to  unfaithfulness,  can  end  no  otherwise 
after  reaching  the  point  where  the  poem  leaves  them. 
Though  when  read  as  an  allegory,  this  poem  is  utterly 
meaningless  ;  yet  when  read  as  a  love  story  in  verse, 
no  pure  man  or  woman  can  rise  from  its  reading  with- 
out having  been  benefited.  It  touches  at  many  points 
the  experience  of  true  lovers  in  all  the  ages,  and  hence 
its  immortality. 


THE  SONG  OF  SONGS.  41 

Inevitably,  a  poem  of  so  great  antiquity,  abounding 
in  Orientalisms,  must  contain  many  historic,  geo- 
graphic, and  social  allusions,  which  it  is  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  understand  to-day.  All  parts  of 
the  old  Hebrew  Scriptures  are  in  the  same  category. 
What  if  we  cannot  understand  what  was  meant  in  its 
time  by  "the  dance  of  angels  at  Mahanaim,"  or  why 
it  was  interesting  to  be  looked  upon  from  the  lion's 
den  or  the  mountains  of  leopards  ?  It  is  sheer  folly  to 
seek  a  meaning  for  these  in  allegory  or  parable.  But, 
given  the  instinctive  drawings  of  a  virtuous  youth  and 
a  virtuous  maiden  of  congenial  tastes,  we  have  the  key 
to  this  inimitable  poem.  Though  therefore  we  may 
not  understand  all  its  allusions,  when  we  read  it  as  a 
poem  intended  to  set  forth  a  victory  of  faithful  love  in 
the  form  of  a  dialogue,  which  may  easily  be  acted  by 
amateurs,  we  are  compelled  to  concede  its  right  to  a 
place  in  our  sacred  collection  of  the  books  which  con- 
stitute our  Bible.  It  can  never  cease  to  be  of  interest 
to  all  pure  minds.  No  better  lesson  is  taught  in  any 
Bible  story,  nor  ever  can  be,  while  the  maximum  of 
human  happiness  is  found  only  in  households  where 
true  love  reigns  supreme ;  and  not  the  least  lesson  it 
teaches  is  the  unchanging  elements  of  love — the  same 
three  thousand  years  ago  as  now. 


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